Student beat ‘world-class’ security to steal from vet

A student managed to bypass a world-class till security system and steal thousands of euro from an animal hospital.

The thief, who stole so much cash from the Donegal Animal Hospital it almost led to its closure, was fined €4,000 and jailed for 21 months, suspended for two years.

The owner of the company was so outraged at the theft at the hands of his former employee that he donated his compensation cheque of €4,064 to charity.

Conor Byrne, aged 23, managed to bypass the “world-class” till system at the Animal Hospital in Lurgybrack, Letterkenny, Co Donegal between May 2009 and December 2010.

Byrne was “editing transactions” so it appeared the takings at the practice were never out, Letterkenny District Court heard. Although Byrne faced 77 charges in relation to thefts totalling €4,064, the owner of the practice Gerard Roarty told Judge Paul Kelly that many multiples of that amount had gone missing.

During an emotional victim impact testimony, Mr Roarty said profits at his veterinary practice had risen 1,000% the year after Byrne was caught and they’d been able to expand services.

He said he has six children and his brother has five children — and they have numerous staff who rely on the business.

All of that had been jeopardised, he said, as money drained away from the business without anyone knowing why.

When suspicions arose, they were forced to begin searching other vets and farmers who were using the practice, believing medicines were being stolen. This caused everyone huge anxiety, he said.

Some of the medicines were “lethal” and he was concerned they were getting into the wrong hands.

“Only for the excellent detective work of Garda Greg Regan we may never have gotten to the bottom of it,” said Mr Roarty.

Garda Regan had contacted VetSCOPE which operated the tilling system — which Mr Roarty said was “world-class and supposedly impossible to crack” — at the hospital and Byrne, of Drumdoit, Castlefin, was interviewed, making a full admission.

Byrne’s solicitor Pat Fahey said that his client had suffered a brain tumour and was hard of hearing.

He said greed had got the better of him and the more he got away with the thefts, the more he carried on. He said Byrne was now a radiotherapy student at Sheffield University and one of the reasons for that choice of subject was because of histumour.

Mr Roarty said he did not believe the payment of compensation was sufficient for the thefts and the trauma caused to a large number of people.

However, Judge Kelly said he could only deal with the 77 charges in front of him and the €4,064 involved and that Byrne had co-operated fully with the probation service and had realised the impact of his crimes.

Judge Kelly said, however, he was “surprised at the direction of the Director of Public Prosecutions” that the case was being heard at the District Court and not the Circuit Court.

He said Byrne’s first theft in May 2009 may have been opportunistic, but thefts after that had been premeditated. He fined Byrne €1,000 on four of the charges, ordering him to pay the €4,000 within six months, and gave him concurrent suspended sentences totalling 21 months, suspended for two years.